[WikiEN-l] An expert's perspective - Tim Bray on editing the XML article

[wjhonson at aol.com]

*That* someone is an expert in field xyz is not a WP:COI, although some 
may see it as a conflict-of-interest (in lower case).  For something to 
be a conflict of interest in-project doesn't just require that a person 
has a strong opinion on it, or a history of deep knowledge of the topic.

Rather it requires that they are something close and personal to *gain* 
 from editing it in some particular fashion.  And that that gain can't 
simply be academic acclaim or high-fiving from their peers.  Rather 
that would be considered the normal rational response to a great 
article.

Trying to position WP:COI as a way to attack experts merely for 
participating in the writing of articles about their field would be 
suicidal to the project.

Will Johnson




-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Matthews <charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com>
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Wed, Aug 12, 2009 2:49 pm
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] An expert's perspective - Tim Bray on editing 
the XML article










Bod Notbod wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 5:56 PM, Abd ul-Rahman 
Lomax<abd at lomaxdesign.com>
wrote:
>
>
>> we might short-block [experts] quickly, if they do not
>> respond to warnings, but we would explain that we respect their
>> expertise and we want them to advise us.
>>
>
> Nothing says "we respect your expertise" like a short-term block :o)
>
>
Sadly, I think enthusiasm for accusations is likely to lead to COI 
being
overused against experts. What is required to establish COI in our 
sense
is a sustained demonstration that they have an agenda in editing that 
is
clearly at odds with the encyclopedia's best interests. Not that they
can't guess where lines someone else is drawing for the playing area 
run.

Charles


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